Category Archives: Models

This is what we’re all about. We scour the web for the best custom LEGO models to share with you. From castles and spaceships to planes, trains, and automobiles, you’ll find the best LEGO creations from builders all over the world right here on The Brothers Brick.

Portal on CUUSOO

I have seen a lot of discussion with respect to CUUSOO, in particular in terms of licenced themes, but generally about feasability of the entire program. Everyone obvioulsy has their own opinions, but personally I think the program is brilliant. We have to keep in mind that this is all in Beta right now and obvioulsy the kinks will be worked out over time. I think the true success of CUUSOO will be through highly thought out projects that are designed with the program in mind…just throwing any given LEGO model on there won’t work in most cases.

Now with all that being said, Team Jigsaw, made up of Five X Five, Brickthing, Lego Junkie, and Arkov have just published a new project based on the hugely popular Portal video game series. I have to be honest, I have never played the games, but I am familiar with the design and aesthetic of it, and one thing is very clear with this project…these guys put a tonne of thought and effort into all aspects of the design!

The thing that really stands out with this for me, is that they have really designed it with different types of possible sets in mind. This wouldn’t be restricted to just a simple building set. One of my favourites is the LEGO boardgame version.

Be sure to check out all the details and ideas. If nothing else, these guys deserve a pat on the back for their planning and development. I think they have set the bar rather high for the design effort of future projects. This had previously been denied by the CUUSOO team, but their perseverance got it reconsidered and approved for voting.

Well done guys!! I really do think that this is a project that could be a huge success!

CUUSOO PROJECT

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HMS Neptune C-01

No surprise that Chris (Babalas Shipyards) can build a mean naval ship, but his latest creation is something spectacular.

The angles and finishing details really put this over the top. And considering this was the state of it just a few days ago, makes it all the more impressive :)

The Curious Incident of the Chicken in the Night-Time

I’ll be honest, I’m not exactly sure what the story is behind this new creation by Barney Main (SlyOwl). I am sure, however, that it’s an amazing build. The level of detail is fantastic, and the household objects are rendered in LEGO perfectly. The chicken is full of great part usage and details, and the expression on its face is fantastic.

Smolny Cathedral

Heath Flor builds a replica of Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. It took Heath almost a year to plan and build it, and he used between 20 and 30 thousand bricks to complete it. This is his largest project so far, and I must say it was truly worth the effort! It is simply amazing. With large projects like this, it is not only the beauty of the model we need to admire, but also all the time, effort and patience needed to complete it.

More Lego art

Marcin and Przemek are brothers from Poland who draw a stylized depiction of a classic Lego set each week. Check out their latest: 6649 Street Sweeper. You can see more on their Flickr gallery or blog.

Onosendai does Prometheus

In what is shaping up to be a meme (how many ways can the space ship Prometheus be expressed in LEGO) , Andrew Lee graces us with a really well done interpretation of the titular movie ship. Can’t wait to see who else takes on the challenge.

Mass Effect’s UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle

Any fan of Mass Effect will no doubt recognize N-11 Ordo‘s rendition of the UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle from the games. By striving for a studless build and using custom stickers, the builder was able to create a high degree of accuracy, albeit at a sacrifice of the model’s sturdiness.

Dregant’s USCSS Prometheus costs much less than a trillion dollars

It’s great to be corrected when the correction reveals that I’ve missed something awesome. I said in my last post about Si-MOCs’ microsocale Prometheus) that I hadn’t found another LEGO version of this great ship, but Niki Dregant has in fact built a much-larger version:

At this scale, a whole lot more detail is possible, including lots of mechanical detail on the engines. Like the micro version, Niki’s larger version can land on its rotating nacelles. Since this is still somewhere around mini/midi-scale, my challenge to build a full minifig-scale version still stands.

Thanks for the tip, Fredo!

Microscale Prometheus lands on tiny LV-223

I saw Ridley Scott’s Prometheus a couple weeks ago, and I’m still a bit ambivalent about it. I appreciate the cosmic scope that makes the Alien trilogy (yes, I said trilogy) seem decidedly minuscule, but it left me more frustrated than anything else. I don’t necessarily need all my questions answered by a movie, but I hate being jerked around.

Nevertheless, I fell in love with the ship herself the moment I saw USCSS Prometheus in the first trailer. With influences evident from Ron Cobb and Chris Foss, it harkens back to the great sci-fi ship designs of the 70’s and 80’s while taking us firmly into the future.

Catching up on LEGO, I’ve been surprised that nobody’s built a LEGO Prometheus yet, so I was pleased to find this great microscale version that Simon Liu (Si-MOCs) built and posted after he got back from BrickWorld:

Simon’s Prometheus is complete with rotating engines, and I like the LV-223 landscape in which he places the hovering ship.

Perhaps one of you out there is planning on building a minifig-scale Prometheus for BrickCon 2012. I’d definitely love to see that. Better get building!

LEGO Mindstorms NXT Turing Machine celebrates Alan Turing’s 100th birthday

Today is pioneering British computer scientist Alan Turing’s 100th birthday. Turing was instrumental in developing early computers, and worked during World War II to successfully crack the German Enigma machine. (Sadly, Turing was prosecuted for being gay in the early 1950s and committed suicide soon after, at age 41.)

One of Alan Turing’s key contributions to computer science is the concept behind his Turing machine, “a hypothetical device representing a computing machine” (according to Wikipedia).

Jeroen van den Bos & Davy Landman of CWI in the Netherlands write:

Abstract models are just that, an abstraction of something. In order to really show how simple the fundamental model of a computer is, we have developed a physical implementation of the Turing machine, using LEGO Mindstorms NXT.

Here’s a videos of the machine in action:

LEGO Turing Machine from ecalpemos on Vimeo.

Read more about the LEGO Turing machine on the team’s website.

Isle Lothloxia

The scale of this scene from L D M is breathtaking… not only does it have one of the finest Castle Keeps I have seen, it also has some wonderful water effects as well. I can almost hear the waves breaking on the beach.

An Unexpected Discovery

As soon as I’ve seen this photo’s thumbnail, it reminded me of Avatar. I turns out that -infomaniac- really based this creation on the Western Air Temple from the show. Amazing rock work, beautiful trees and architecture is what makes me like this.

On the side note, if you still haven’t, it’s time to start watching the sequel to Avatar – Legend of Korra. You too might get inspired to build something as awesome as this.